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With a six week gap in the schedule since Buenos Aires (and four weeks since the non-championship Brazilian GP), some updates to the cars were starting to filter through, but the lion's share of revisions would be in another eight weeks at Spain. Despite the distance from the the races, a huge entry of 27 cars turned out.

Ferrari: The Scuderia ran this race with full-width nose cones, similar to the Tyrrells, in a quest for reduced drag and straight line speed. The relative age of the nose cones was illustrated when Mario Andretti's nose did not arrive until the day before the race.

Dave Charlton had purchased the Lotus 72 used primarily by Reine Wisell in 1971, and with some deep sponsorship was able to have all of the latest updates to the car. Charlton himself was highly regarded as a driver, and when it was announced that he would contest much of the season, teams took notice of how well the team performed.

March: The great tea tray experiment was over, as the cars both arrived with the shovel noses and normal wings seen in practice in Canada and Argentina.

Frank Williams' team had a new name (to reflect the sponsor), and former Brabham owner and engineer Ron Tauranac acting as their race engineer. Tauranac made several detail changes to both cars that made a noticeable improvement in performance. Brazilian driver Carlos Pace was added to Henri Pescarolo's old 711, but with several 721 modifications, so the cars were almost indistinguishable.

Rolf Stommelen arrived with a car that was called an 'Eiffelland', but was in reality a March 721 with new bodywork and suspension. The car had what was claimed to be a unique variable rate rear suspension made of titanium. And furniture expert Luigi Colani had designed a new nose in the Tyrrell style, and a one-piece cockpit/engine cover, with the engine air intake in front and a single rear-view mirror sticking up on a foot-high stalk directly in front of the driver. It was very futuristic-looking, and Stommelen assured the officials that the mirror stalk was thin, and he almost never looked directly forward anyway. But during practice, the new nose had to be replaced by the original tea tray, due to overheating and a lack of grip. And with either nose, the car was fairly slow down the straight, implying that the fancy bodywork could have used some aerodynamic testing.

Matra: The oil tank on Chris Amon's main car had been moved the the very rear, to improve airflow.

McLaren: The cars arrived with a new mounting for the rear wings, moving them back slightly to get cleaner air. The team was one of several that ran a testing session here the week before the race, and they were quite optimistic afterwards.

Surtees: Mike Hailwood had rejoined the team after finishing second in the Tasman Cup series. All three cars had revised windscreens and cockpit bodywork, to reduced air buffeting on the drivers. Tim Schenken's car had a Formula 2 style rear wing for straight line speed.

Tyrrell: The team also had chassis 004 as a spare, which had already turned several hundred miles at the Kyalami circuit testing tires for Goodyear over the winter, including a session the week before the race. François Cevert's car had a modified front suspension with the upright blended with the brake caliper, a weight-saving idea pioneered by Matra.